W
Wanker
Guest
A tourist ship in Niagara Falls, NY, on June 14, 2012, passes under the tight rope which will be used by high-wire walker Nik Wallenda, 33, on June 15 to cross from the US to Canada over the Horseshoe section of the falls.
The great thing about live television -- or even same-day programming -- is that TV network executives can't mess it up.The broadcast networks are in the habit of taking Friday off, for example, but thankfully the people who organized daredevil Nik Wallenda's history-making bid to walk across Niagara Gorge on a tightrope understand that Friday -- the end of the work week -- is the perfect time to draw a crowd.Tonight's Man on Wire:
Live from Niagara Falls is a live TV stunt in the tradition of Houdini and the Flying Wallendas, from long before the era of television, when the exploits of daredevils, escape artists and illusionists captivated an entire generation of rubberneckers.If successful, Wallenda will be the first person to cross Horseshoe Falls, the largest of the three falls that comprise Niagara Falls. Other daredevils have crossed the gorge, but not for more than 100 years. And they crossed downstream.
Strangely, perhaps because television itself is an illusion of a kind, daredevil acts have always been a tough sell on TV, even though they can be genuinely dangerous, deadly even. Copperfield, the master of TV illusions, was hospitalized in 1984 after an illusion called "Escape from Death" went awry. Wallenda, a seventh-generation member of the legendary Flying Wallendas performing troupe, has had his share of close calls, too.
The Wallenda clan has suffered a number of fatal missteps over the years; patriarch Karl Wallenda fell to his death in San Juan, Puerto Rico at age 73 while trying to cross between two hotel towers.Nik Wallenda is 33, in the prime of his life and his daredevil career. He began walking tightropes at the age of four and made his professional debut when he was 13.
Last year, together with his mother Delilah, he completed the tightrope walk in Puerto Rico that killed Karl Wallenda 33 years earlier. He proposed to his future wife during a high-wire routine in Montreal in 1999, and is no stranger to TV: In 2008, during an appearance on NBC's Today Show, he set a world record for the longest and highest bicycle ride atop a tightrope.His bid to cross Niagara Gorge, from the U.S. to the Canadian side, will require a 550-metre tightrope walk, some 60 metres above the churning falls.
And unlike so much of what passes for reality TV, this stunt is not fake -- even if, for both legality and morality's sake, ABC is reportedly insisting that he wear a safety harness.Success or failure, there's one other important difference between Wallenda's effort tonight and those of the late 19th century daredevils who tackled the Falls.
This time, through the miracle of television, if Wallenda should succeed, a whole world will witness it, as it happens. Why, it's almost enough to make one forgive everything else that's on.(CTV, ABC, Friday at 9 p.m. ET/PT)
The great thing about live television -- or even same-day programming -- is that TV network executives can't mess it up.The broadcast networks are in the habit of taking Friday off, for example, but thankfully the people who organized daredevil Nik Wallenda's history-making bid to walk across Niagara Gorge on a tightrope understand that Friday -- the end of the work week -- is the perfect time to draw a crowd.Tonight's Man on Wire:
Live from Niagara Falls is a live TV stunt in the tradition of Houdini and the Flying Wallendas, from long before the era of television, when the exploits of daredevils, escape artists and illusionists captivated an entire generation of rubberneckers.If successful, Wallenda will be the first person to cross Horseshoe Falls, the largest of the three falls that comprise Niagara Falls. Other daredevils have crossed the gorge, but not for more than 100 years. And they crossed downstream.
Strangely, perhaps because television itself is an illusion of a kind, daredevil acts have always been a tough sell on TV, even though they can be genuinely dangerous, deadly even. Copperfield, the master of TV illusions, was hospitalized in 1984 after an illusion called "Escape from Death" went awry. Wallenda, a seventh-generation member of the legendary Flying Wallendas performing troupe, has had his share of close calls, too.
The Wallenda clan has suffered a number of fatal missteps over the years; patriarch Karl Wallenda fell to his death in San Juan, Puerto Rico at age 73 while trying to cross between two hotel towers.Nik Wallenda is 33, in the prime of his life and his daredevil career. He began walking tightropes at the age of four and made his professional debut when he was 13.
Last year, together with his mother Delilah, he completed the tightrope walk in Puerto Rico that killed Karl Wallenda 33 years earlier. He proposed to his future wife during a high-wire routine in Montreal in 1999, and is no stranger to TV: In 2008, during an appearance on NBC's Today Show, he set a world record for the longest and highest bicycle ride atop a tightrope.His bid to cross Niagara Gorge, from the U.S. to the Canadian side, will require a 550-metre tightrope walk, some 60 metres above the churning falls.
And unlike so much of what passes for reality TV, this stunt is not fake -- even if, for both legality and morality's sake, ABC is reportedly insisting that he wear a safety harness.Success or failure, there's one other important difference between Wallenda's effort tonight and those of the late 19th century daredevils who tackled the Falls.
This time, through the miracle of television, if Wallenda should succeed, a whole world will witness it, as it happens. Why, it's almost enough to make one forgive everything else that's on.(CTV, ABC, Friday at 9 p.m. ET/PT)
EACE:
